GB 2009 1hr 30mins Dir: Nick Love Starring: Calum MacNab and Camille Coduri
Football hooligans don casual gear and organise themselves into ‘firms’
This hooligan drama is based on Alan Clarke’s made-for-television version of 1989, which has been included on this website for completeness, but this version of The Firm was in no way equal to the original. Overall it is a poor spectacle, but it has to try to fill a void in the already saturated market for football violence and does its best under the circumstances. A 1980s journey by train from Waterloo to Portsmouth takes place onboard a rake of blue & grey Mk.2’s, with Victoria standing in for Waterloo, and Salisbury standing in for Portsmouth & Southsea! Despite these inconsistencies we are treated to a rather fine shot of the train arriving into Salisbury in the hands of a West Coast-liveried Class 47. If you look really carefully through the windows of the train after it has arrived, ‘modern’ South West Trains’ Class 158/159 DMU’s can be seen. There is an additional shot of a District Line train of London Underground D stock passing through Bow, and a fight scene at the end that was filmed at King’s Cross St. Pancras Underground station.